


you make my heart beat like the rain

by ceciwrites



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Flirting, M/M, Pre-Relationship, it's gay my dudes everything is gay, lgbtq society at college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 10:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciwrites/pseuds/ceciwrites
Summary: When Alec starts college and his best friend drags him to an lgbtq meeting, he ends up having a pretty good time. When the evening is over, he's made a couple of new friends and maybe, maybe he leaves with something else too.





	you make my heart beat like the rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SalazarTipton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalazarTipton/gifts).



> for my dearest boy edin: happy birthday! i hope you had a lovely day and i hope this is as good as you imagined when you urged me to write this a few months ago<3 i love you so much!!!
> 
> thanks to [ali](http://isabellebiwoods.tumblr.com) and [charl](http://lightwoodlesbians.tumblr.com) for making me not delete this when i had stared at it for too long to make sense of my own words<3

“Izzy, please, I've only been here for three days,” Alec sighed into the phone as he looked out of the window down on the big grass in front of his dorm. “It's college, not prison, I'll be fine.”  
  
They talked for a couple of minutes longer, and Izzy made Alec promise to call her if anything happened before saying goodbye.  
  
Really, college wasn't so bad. His roommate seemed pretty cool, even if he did talk a lot, and orientation week had been fun so far. Sure, classes hadn't begun yet but there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to love them as well.  
  
After unpacking yet another one of his boxes, there was a knock on the door, making him look up from where he was crouching down next to his bookshelf.  
  
“Yes?” he said, not knowing what to do.  
  
The door opened, and if that wasn't the most wonderful sight he'd seen since he arrived, he didn't know what it was.  
  
“Aline!” He quickly stood up, making his way to the door and scooping his best friend into his arms. It had been too long since they'd seen each other, with Alec busy finishing high school and Aline spending most of her time with her new girlfriend.  
  
Aline had graduated high school the year before and while they had talked several times a week during that year, it just wasn't the same as seeing each other every day at school. Thankfully they had both been dreaming about attending NYU since they were young, so it was a no-brainer that Alec was following her here as soon as he could.  
  
“What are you doing here? I thought you weren't supposed to be back until the weekend?”  
  
Her eyes were warm, smile sweet as she pulled back to look at him. There was a sense of familiarity and security in her presence and Alec instantly felt the warmth spread through his body as he returned her smile.  
  
“I had to make sure my favourite person in the world had settled alright,” Aline replied, sending a wink in Alec's direction before stepping properly into the room and closing the door behind her.  
  
“Need some help with that?” She asked, nodding towards the boxes in the corner of the room.  
  
They spent the next few hours sorting through Alec’s belongings and finding a place for everything in his tiny dorm room. His clothes being unpacked and refolded, books finding their way to the shelves above his bed, and pictures of his friends and family places upon nearly every surface in the room.  
  
“You doing anything Wednesday evening?” Aline asked suddenly, making Alec look up from where he was sorting through one of the last boxes.  
  
“Not that I’m aware of.” It wasn’t like he had made a ton of friends yet, and orientation would be done before his classes began on Monday. “Why?”  
  
Aline hesitated, almost as she was unsure if she should continue or not. Then she shook her head lightly and smiled at him. “The pride society is having their first meeting of the semester, I was hoping you’d drop by?”  
  
For a few moments, Alec didn’t say anything, thoughts running wild as if his mind was _trying_ to come up with a worst-case scenario.  
  
No, he was done being afraid. He was out to everyone that mattered, his mother finally seemed like she was coming around to accept him, and he was not about to just forget or ignore all the progress he had made in the last couple of years.  
  
“Sure,” he finally answered with a little smile of his own.  


* * *

  
When Alec pushed through the doors of the building where the society held their meetings, it had been raining all day. Pulling his jacket closer around himself, he slowly made his way upstairs, hoping to God that Aline was waiting for him at the door as she’d said she would.  
  
After her visit last week, she had called him multiple times to make sure he was going to show even if he had already promised to be there.  
  
“Hey, you.”  
  
Alec looked up from the spot he'd been staring at on the floor to see her leaning against the wall beside a door with a sign that said “WE'RE PROUD TO BE HERE” in colourful letters. On her other side stood a girl, slightly taller than her, dark brown hair in a messy bun, and a smile almost as wide as Aline’s.  
  
“Hey,” he replied, giving Aline a quick hug before turning to the other girl, offering her his hand. “You must be the infamous Helen?”  
  
Eyes crinkling at Alec's words, most likely knowing that Aline must have spoken to Alec about her, she reached out to shake his hand.  
  
They had been talking for a few minutes, a dozen people passing them on their way to the meeting when they were interrupted.  
  
“We're starting in five minutes. Are you coming inside?”  
  
For a moment Alec felt his heart stop, grateful that the guy standing in the doorway wasn't speaking directly to him. There was no way in hell that he'd be able to form a coherent sentence at that moment, given that his thoughts were currently a mix of _holy shit_ and I'm so screwed.  
  
The guy who had interrupted them was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed in front of him, making the bottle green shirt he was wearing stretch over his shoulders and biceps. His brown eyes, framed with a hint of dark make-up were almost shining as he sent a fond smile in the girls’ direction, and Alec decided right there and then that he must have been the most beautiful person Alec had ever seen.  
  
Nodding, the girls made their way inside, leaving Alec behind with the handsome stranger.  
  
“What's your name, pretty boy?” The guy asked, not so subtly letting his eyes wander down Alec's body before looking back up at him.  
  
Alec smiled, a warm feeling spreading in his chest at the nickname. “Alec, my name’s Alec. I, uh, I'm a friend of Aline’s.”  
  
“Nice to meet you, Alec, I'm Magnus,” he said, pulling a roll of sticky labels out of his pants pockets.  
  
He quickly scribbled down Alec's name before stepping closer to place the label on the chest pocket of Alec's denim shirt, the warmth of his fingers seeping through the fabric.  
  
“There.” Magnus smiled at him, a warm and welcoming smile that made Alec's stomach flutter. “Come on.”  
  
They headed inside the now well-packed room where Magnus excused himself and joined a small group of people at the front of the room. Quickly, Alec spotted Aline and her girlfriend sitting by the window with knowing looks on their faces.  
  
“What?” he whispered as he sat down next to them, not liking the smirk that Aline was sporting.  
  
Her eyes flickered to Magnus and back, one eyebrow raised in a silent ‘you think you're being subtle?’  
  
“Oh, shut up.”  
  
Alec didn't see Aline’s reaction, his attention stolen entirely by Magnus as he welcomed everyone and talk a little about what was going to happen during the evening.  
  
At first, it had seemed a bit daunting, introducing yourself to a bunch of strangers, a lot of whom already knew each other. He knew he could always find Aline but it seemed sort of counterproductive if he were going to try and make some new friends.  
  
Before he could worry too much about ending up sitting awkwardly by himself in the corner, however, he had been talked into a game of Trivial Pursuit by one of the girls named Catarina.  
  
She quickly introduced him to the rest of the people gathered around the table, before stopping in her tracks. Her eyes swept over the group of people with a concentrated look on her face before she looked over her shoulder.  
  
“Magnus!” she called across the room, making Magnus look up from a bunch of papers in his hands. “We need another person to fill up the teams. Do you wanna join?”  
  
Since everyone else had already paired up, Magnus ended up being on Alec's team.  
  
In terms of their chances of winning, it was a bad decision. Not because Magnus didn't know any of the answers. Quite the opposite. Magnus was the one who scored the two of them the most points.  
  
But really, how could anyone expect Alec to be able to think clearly when Magnus had been sitting close enough for Alec to _feel_ _it_ every time he laughed for almost two hours. When Magnus had spent most of the game whispering ridiculous answers into Alec’s ear whenever it wasn’t their turn.  
  
Who cared about winning anyway.  
  
Much too soon the game was over but even if Alec didn’t see much of Magnus for the rest of the evening, he still managed to have fun, talking and laughing with a bunch of the others.  
  
By the end of the meeting he felt… happy. It's an odd thing, watching the people who'd been strangers just hours before leave and feeling like maybe, finally he'd met _his people_.  
  
He smiled, waving at a couple of girls he'd just been talking to as they left the room, before looking around to see if he'd be able to find Aline anywhere.  
  
He must have been looking a little lost when he didn't immediately spot her and it only took a few moments before a strangely familiar voice sounded behind him.  
  
“I think she's gone downstairs,” Magnus explained. “We usually stay for a while, chatting after the meetings.”  
  
As Alec turned around to face him, he tried to prepare himself for the sight of the other man but it was to no avail. He was just as breath-taking as he had been when Alec had first laid eyes on him, and it took Alec couple of seconds to collect himself.  
  
“Oh, okay, I’ll just…” he replied, gesturing towards the door. “I’ll see you next week?”  
  
At some point during the evening, Alec had learned that Magnus was the president of the pride society. Alec assumed that that meant that Magnus would be attending all the meetings. It also meant that crushing on him was probably not the best idea.  
  
Not that Alec’s mind or heart seemed to care about that. He really _was_ screwed.  
  
“You could stay,” Magnus suggested, probably sensing that Alec wasn’t in a hurry to get out the door. He was slowly making his way through the room to where Alec was standing, one hand fiddling with the golden ear cuff he was wearing. “We’re just getting some tea and talking about how the evening went.”  
  
There was a hopeful look in his eyes, and Alec thought for a moment that maybe, maybe this developing crush of his wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.  
  
“I don’t wanna intrude,” he said, even though he wanted to say yes more than anything.  
  
Magnus came to a halt a couple feet away, eyes scanning Alec’s face as if he was searching for something, as if he was trying to find an answer to a question that had yet to be asked.  
  
“You won’t, I promise,” he finally said, reaching out to place a hand on Alec’s upper arm. It was like when he had put the label on Alec's shirt earlier, except more. Except, this time it made Alec want to do everything he could to get Magnus to keep touching him like this: casually and yet affectionate.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
“Come on then,” Magnus said, smiling wide as he let his hand slide down until he could wrap his fingers around Alec's and tug him towards the door and down the stairs.  
  
If they were still holding hands when they got to the kitchen where the others were already chatting away, Aline might have given him a knowing but amused look. But if Magnus’ hand had brushed against him underneath the table, or if Alec's heart beat a little faster every time Magnus laughed for the rest of the evening, then that was for Alec to know alone.

  


**Author's Note:**

> feel free to come and yell @ me on [tumblr](http://daddariossmile.tumblr.com/)


End file.
